Women more likely to respond to heart attack relief by female doctor

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15/08/2018

It is common to have a preference of the gender of your doctor, especially if being seen about and personal health issue. A shocking new study has revealed that for certain illnesses if a male or female treat you it could negatively impact your survival chances.

The research was conducted at the University of Minnesota and found alarming evidence that women who suffered a heart attack and were treated by a male doctor were more likely to die, opposed to those who received treatment from a female doctor. They even found the impact of gender was so significant that having a female doctor in the room increased chances of survival.

The researchers looked at the emergency department admissions for heart attacks in Florida from the years 1991-2010. Excluding all factors apart from the gender of the doctor, they found that both men and women had a similar survival rate when treated by a female doctor. However, female patients who were treated by a male doctor were 1.5% less likely to survive a heart attack, compared to those treated by a female doctor.

They also found that women who were treated by a male doctor but with many female doctors even in the emergency room, she was more likely to survive.

"One [reason] could be that female patients are more comfortable advocating for themselves with a female physician," he said. "[Or] it could be because women are more likely to present atypically and female physicians are better at picking up cues than their male colleagues."

This study had significant benefits for women in the medical industry, as it calls for higher demand for females doctors to specialise in heart attack patients, to increase survival rates.